Giuliani On Why He Can End Illegal Immigration, Why Others Can’t

ABC News’ Jan Simmonds Reports: GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, R-N.Y., journeyed to the U.S.-Mexico border today to talk about illegal immigration and pointed out that some of his critics have "no record of reducing illegality anywhere."

Asked about what he learned from visiting the border near Mission, Texas, Giuliani said he was reminded about what could be accomplished.

Seeing the equipment in place at the border town, Giuliani said, " I can kind of look at what needs to be done with the photographic equipment, the motion detection equipment, the heat seeking equipment, a borderstat system like my compstat system."

"I’m not gonna tell you it’s easy to do — it’s not," Giuliani added. "But it is certainly is well within the bounds of the technology that now exists in the world, for us to end illegal immigration on this portion of the border. This would not be hard to do in that sense. It would be… it would take a long time, it would take a big expenditure of time and money, but its possible."

Giuliani’s party rivals — Gov. Mitt Romney, R-MA, and Sen. Fred Thompson, R-TN — have both criticized the former New York City Mayor’s illegal immigration record, describing New York as a "sanctuary city" during his mayoral leadership.

In response Giuliani pointed to his record.

"I reduced crime more than any other mayor, any other governor in that period of time. I may have reduced crime more than anyone who has ever governed a city or a state because I had sensible policies. They have the luxury of just sort of saying anything they want, but they have no record for reducing crime. I have a record for reducing crime."

Back on track regarding the subject of illegal immigration Giuliani said, "The policies that I utilized with regard to illegal immigration (in New York City) were, in the context of overall policies, probably were the most successful in the history of the country in creating an orderly, legal, lawful society."

"They have no record of reducing illegality anywhere, on the scale that I did," he added.

Rudy Giuliani believes that if he were elected president, he could stop the flow of illegal immigrants crossing the border in three years time and that since he has shown the ability to get results in the past, illegal immigration is just on additional challenge he could solve.